self-titled - no. 2 - (Page 47) FA K I N G I T “The image is one thing, and the human being is another. It’s very hard to live up to an image.” — Elvis Presley, at a June 1972 press conference As it turns out, Blood Visions was a concept record Reatard wrote about stalking and killing his ex-girlfriend. “Only a few people caught onto that,” he says, “It’s about this stalker guy. I put myself into this exaggerated, sensationalized character where I just took my own personality and multiplied it by ten. Some dude wrote his senior thesis about it and posted it online. It was like sixteen pages, where he breaks down every song. I think he was the only person who got it. It was wicked, man—it’s like he was on acid or something. He got everything right.” [Ed. note: A week after this interview, neither Reatard nor self-titled could find the thesis online.] Reatard’s forthcoming Matador full-length, which is tentatively set for a mid-’09 release, won’t be quite as morbid. “I’m doing what everybody does when they get old and boring,” he says with a laugh. “I’m getting introspective. It’s more about me than other people. I think I’m getting to that age where I’m not venting so much about things around me. I’m starting to figure out how I fit in. I feel like I’m part of a bigger picture.” That said, his recording regiment remains as stringent as ever. “My idea is to have 16 songs, with multiple versions of each to choose from,” he explains. “With any of the pop songs I’m writing now, they could be presented infinite amounts of ways, like whether I want them to be punk songs or more like the acoustic stuff I do sometimes.” Given his aversion to collaborations these days, it’s perhaps surprising that Reatard's letting Matador help decide what will make the final album. “If this thing doesn’t do so well, I want them to play a role in it, so I can blame them, too,” he says, implying he’s only half joking. “So from the demos to the completed versions, there’s a list of people I’ll send stuff to—close friends, people at Matador Occasionally I’ll play a tune for my dad because he knows nothing about music and has the honesty of a small child. I mean, he likes Dwight Yoakam, you know? Sometimes people who are the most removed from what you’re doing can have the best perspective.” Expectations for Reatard’s album are high among label folks who’ve worked with him in the past. “[Blood Visions] was a jaw-dropper,” says Hardy. “Since then, everything he’s cranked out has been even more accessible and going in directions I didn’t expect. I can see big things happening. He’s got the talent to back it up: He’s a remarkable guitar player, he’s got a good voice, he’s got a knack for producing, and his songwriting is incredible. He can do it all, and that’s rare.” Matador founder Chris Lombardi recalls seeing Reatard for the first time at New York City’s Cake Shop and being blown away. He followed the artist to a Texas music festival. “At that time, Jay was being approached by numerous majors,” Lombardi says. “One of the guys he talked to said something like, ‘Kurt Cobain killed hair metal; you’re gonna kill emo.’ ” But Lombardi prefers pragmatism to hyperbole. “He could write radio singles until he’s blue in the face, but I don’t think he needs to stop being Jay,” Lombardi says. “We’re not expecting the next album to be some massive departure, but maybe it will be. There’s no pressure from us.” Reatard tells us that the working title of his next full-length is Faking It. 47 I don’t control the Internet. I’ve seen days when I wanted to kill it, but I can’t control it.
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